HPW World Heavyweight Championship
The Higher Passion Wrestling (HPW) World Heavyweight Championship is a backyard wrestling World Heavyweight Championship as recognized by Higher Passion Wrestling. It was first awarded on March 12, 2011 to Lustkill, before it was revealed to be James "Grimm" Blackwell in disguise. Background The HPW World Title's history goes back to an indie federation called Ultimate Desire Wrestling. Not much is known about the title's history while in UDW. When Sean and Paul Steel founded HTR Underground in early 2008, they took the UDW Title belt. That belt was then used as the HTR World Heavyweight Title. HTR continued to put on shows until April 2009, when the Steel brothers gave the federation to James Blackwell. Blackwell closed HTR and founded Underground Wrestling Entertainment in May. Blackwell was the HTR World Champion at the time and christened himself the UWE World Heavyweight Champion upon UWE's founding. UWE was successfully running it's product until November, when a personal problem involving Blackwell's family caused a suspension of operations. Operations eventually continued in May 2010, when UWE allowed the Steels to book matches for the UWE World Title on their reunion show, "One Last Ride". At "One Last Ride", a special 24/7 Rule was placed on the UWE World Title, and the belt switched hands many times, leaving Sean Steel both the HTR and UWE World Champion at the end of the event. One month later, UWE held it's closing show "Doomsday". At "Doomsday", Paul Steel defeated Sean Steel in an impromptu match to become the UWE World Champion, and is recognized as the final champion. At the end of the event, Sean announced that a new federation, Higher Passion Wrestling would start in 2011. On March 12, HPW held it's first event. In it, Lustkill defeated Cody Douglas to become the first HPW World Heavyweight Champion. However, after the match, it was revealed that Blackwell had disguised himself as Lustkill and entered the match as an act of revenge against Douglas, Paul Steel, and Sean Steel. Both Lustkill and Blackwell's reigns are recognized by HPW. One month later on April 2, "April Anarchy" was held. Blackwell lost the title in a match to Dukalien. Dukalien defended the title valiantly until he was defeated by Sean Steel on July 2 at "Dirty Black Summer". At the same time, Sean was the TPBYWA World Heavyweight Champion, which he claimed was the true NBYWA World Heavyweight Championship. Steel started a feud with the National Backyard Wrestling Alliance founder Skull Jr. earlier in the year over who was the rightful champion. Steel, Skull, and Blackwell (who claimed he should get a shot because of a missed one two years prior and also revived the UWE brand during this time) entered in on the feud and it escalated to a 3-way, 3-Title unification match on September 3 at HPW's event "Homecoming". The match made backyard wrestling history, as it was the first time two backyard wrestling communities unified their World Titles. Steel retained the TPBYWA and HPW World Titles, while also winning the NBYWA World Title. He, Blackwell, his brother Max, Cody Douglas, and RPK formed the Masters of the Backyard after the match and beat Skull down until Skull was saved by Dukalien. Dukalien challenged Steel for the HPW World Title and Steel accepted. Dukalien won the match. One month later on October 1 at "HPW/NBYWA 7: Hell-O-Ween", Dukalien defended the belt against Blackwell and Douglas, which lasted the whole time limit and was declared a draw. Dukalien gave the belt to Steel (who earlier in the show lost the TPBYWA and NBYWA World Titles to Skull in a rematch) who was retiring after the show. However, Steel re-considered his stance and became an active wrestler again and was considered the champion until March 22, 2012, when on HPW's new website it was announced that the title (along with the Underground Title) was vacated. On April 7, a four-man Battle Royal took place to decide a new champion at "First Blood". Sean Steel was the surprise fourth entrant, and Cody Douglas became the World Champion. The other participants were James Blackwell and Dukalien. At the next show on May 5, Steel, Blackwell, and Douglas reformed TNT. After a brief hiatus in June, HPW came back on July 14 with "Dirty Black Summer". At the show, Cody Douglas was stripped of the championship by interim General Manager Kooleville Kid for being a member of TNT and awarded the belt to JC Grunge. After Blackwell and Steel won the NBYWA World Tag Team Championship, TNT was in control of HPW. On September 1 at "Labor Day Bash", Angel Blackwell (the new HPW General Manager) awarded Douglas the title after JC Grunge no-showed the August and September shows. He and James Blackwell lost the NBYWA World Tag Titles to Moustapha Akkad & Kooleville Kid (as members of Rev 6, Paul Steel's group) and TNT split afterward. Blackwell defeated Douglas later in the day after a challenge was accepted. At the same show, a match between Kooleville Kid and Blackwell was booked for "Hell-O-Ween: Wings From Hell" the next month. However, when the show happened on October 13, the Kid didn't show up. Blackwell instead successfully defended the belt against the legitimate Lustkill. On November 10 at "Final Pilgrimage", Blackwell defended the HPW World Title against Dukalien with Sean Steel serving as Special Referee. After a short but intense, hate-filled match, James came out on top. Sean kept mouthing "I'm sorry" to Dukalien, as did Blackwell, and it looked as if the two joined Rev 6 as they stood at the entrance, looking on at Dukalien. At the next show, "Valentine Vengeance" on February 10, it was revealed by Blackwell that he was saying "I'm sorry" because of his actions in the match. He was then beat down by Rev 6 and saved by Sean Steel. Steel apologized to Dukalien for the same things and then went on about how the show was booked. He mentioned in passing that he was going to receive a title shot against Blackwell but decided not to take it because of the attack. Blackwell convinced Steel to take the shot and the two had an impromptu match for the title with Steel coming out on top. After the match the two were helped backstage by the referee and Dukalien. In March at "Resurrection", Steel and Blackwell had a rematch, with Steel winning again. On April 6 at "First Blood", Sean defended the title against Reaper. Sean won by submission after Reaper's manager Pandora turned against him. After the match, James Blackwell came out. At first, it seemed to be that Blackwell came to congratulate Sean, but he showed his true colors after throwing coffee in Steel's face. He then joined Rev 6 and they all proceeded to beat Sean down, stealing the title belt. Steel was helped out by Dukalien and Cody Douglas. The attack caused Sean to be taken out of the next show ("Twist of Fate"), due to medical reasons. Though the championship wasn't defended on June 15 at "Twist of Fate", Sean was given the belt back by Reaper after Paul Steel convinced the entire HPW roster to join together against the NBYWA (specifically Skull Jr. and RPK). On July 6 at "Backyard Brawl", it was revealed than Sean and RPK were actually working together and, with "Wild Man" Dan, Jeff Gates, and Eric Castle, they formed Reality, also claiming that RPK was the new "President" of the NBYWA. Sean's match against RPK for the HPW World Title was canceled and replaced with a match between RPK and Blackwell. After a brawl spilled out between Reality and HPW's roster, the match was declared a no-contest. On August 3 at "Dirty Hot Summer", Sean Steel issued an open challenge to anyone at the top of the show for a title shot, which Moustapha Akkad answered. Later on in their match, after Dukalien came out, Sean engaged in a shoving match with the referee and was caught by Akkad, who delivered his special and won the match along with the title. At "Labor Day Bash" on September 14, Moustapha Akkad was awarded with a new belt for his victory. He was then set to face HPW newcomer Criss Cage in the main event for the championship. During the match, Sean Steel was the special referee and interfered with the action, ultimately superkicking Akkad and delivering a fast count so that Cage would win, making him the new champion. After the match, Reaper confronted Steel and was then betrayed by James Blackwell, who joined Reality. At the beginning of "Hell-O-Ween" on October 26, Reality made their way down to the ring wearing shirts re-christening themselves TNT. Sean Steel made a couple announcements before saying that Moustapha Akkad would get another shot at the HPW World Title, in a triple threat match with the champion Criss Cage and himself involved. In the main event, the match was contested under elimination rules. Akkad eliminated Cage first after a brutal bulldog, and it seemed as if Steel and Akkad were gonna go toe-to-toe to determine the new champion. After faking a strike, Akkad lightly pushed Steel down to win the title, revealing that Akkad had been in on the plan the whole time, becoming a member of TNT in the process. On April 5, 2014 at "First Blood," Paul Steel originally announced that there would be no HPW World Title match, instead, the main event would be the champion Akkad & Sean Steel taking on Dukalien & Lustkill. If Sean & Akkad were to win, they would face each other for the title at the next show. Sean quit TNT in protest, but the match remained. The stipulation was changed: instead of a standard tag team match, it would be elimination style. One team would get eliminated, and then the other team would face each other for the belt. Steel taunted Akkad throughout the match, and Akkad didn't tag him in. Dukalien beat Akkad down to the point of eliminating his team, setting up a match between Duke and Lustkill. However, Lustkill laid down for the pin with Dukalien demanding they fight for the championship. After Duke's reluctant victory over Lustkill to win the title, Lustkill was revealed to be Paul Steel in disguise. Paul said that he was sorry for the way things had turned out in the last few months, and promptly left the ring. Both Sean and Dukalien were left absolutely confused by the events that occurred. On April 19 at "April Ambush," there was no World Title match. Instead, Dukalien asked Moustapha Akkad to come out. After he did, the two talked of a rematch before Sean Steel made his way to the ring. Sean convinced Duke to face him instead, causing Akkad to leave. The match was set, Sean Steel and the defending champion Dukalien the next month in an I Quit Match. On May 3 at "Vengeance," under Paul Steel's orders, it became a No DQ match instead. Dukalien won the match, becoming the first person to successfully defend the title since Steel himself the previous year. During the match, Moustapha Akkad came out to observe, and afterward looked to attack Steel. Duke came back into the ring, and Akkad offered him a handshake. Dukalien instead hit him with his special, Bad Intentions, and went to check up on Sean (who had been hit with the move at the tail end of the match.) He picked Steel up and the two embraced, walking back to the entrance. A short while afterward, Akkad walked off as well, laughing maniacally. Title History